Music Videos and Films

Difference between the two: 


  • the duration, films are 90minutes long whilst music videos are 3minutes 
  • Music videos are adverts for the product whereas, films are the product. 
  • Films have a narrative, music can have them but it isn't essential 

Celebrities & Music videos 


Key term - celebrity - "The attribution of glamorous or notorious status to somebody in the public sphere" (Rojec, cited in Abercrombie & Longhurst, 2007:54)


Task: Watch the video to Stupid Love by Lady Gaga. In what ways is she constructed as a celebrity? Make reference to shot types, camera angles, mise en scene, and anything else off the textual analysis toolkit


  • The tracking of the camera constructs Gaga as the celebrity as it follows her everywhere, every move she takes so as the spectator is obvious to us that she is the centre of attention. She is positioned in front of all the dancers reinforces her importance and shows her hierarchy over the other dancers, we don't tend to notice the backup dancers as we know Gaga is meant to the main focus of the music video. Gaga also breaks the fourth wall and makes eye contact with the camera which the other dancers don't this shows her dominance. The mise en of her costume also tells the audience she is more important the rest, as it is more glamourous and sparkly. 
  • The producers create an illusion by putting Gaga in front of the backup dancers as it makes it seem like she is directing them and they're copying her moves almost like a fan. 

Riptide Music Video initial analysis 

The video to Riptide is VERY different from a typical pop video. For starters (and here's something you MUST refer to in the exam), the performer is not in it at all! This makes the video highly unconventional
  • CODES AND CONVENTIONS: there's no shot showing the singer/performer  - very unconventional. 
  • INTERPRETATION OF LYRICS: The majority of this video is made up of links between the visual and the lyrics eg. when it says pretty girl, there's a mid-shot of blonde girl - 
  • It contains a voyeuristic treatment of women, women are being filmed without them knowing.
  • The woman is seen 'seductively' removing the straps from her shoulders as the camera zooms in closer. Removing the straps would mean that she would be revealing her chest which is the main attraction to men.
  • CAMERA SHOTS: Close up shots of a woman looking scared at the dentist - making the audience feel in distress.
  • The first shot that goes with the lyric "scared of the dark" is a low angle shot = we are looking up to the dark, the dark seems intimidating as it appears to be bigger than the audience/him = evidence to the fact that the video is made up of visual and lyrical links.
  • CONTINUITY MONTAGE The different shots placed one after the other creates a discontinued storyline = unconventional eg. from a mid-shot focusing on a card to a low angle shot focusing on a blonde girl with her arms up. 
  • The message of the video gets darker as it continues - first close up of the woman singing she has a "perfect makeup" - as the video progresses the woman appears to be scared/in danger as the makeup is smudged. Her mascara is all over her face, connoting that she probably cried. 
  • EDITING - BEAT MATCHED = As the video progresses, the woman's lip-sync doesn't much the audio - however, the close-up shots of her facial expressions suggest that she is trying very hard.
  •  However the elements (makeup and unmatched lip-sync)  are fully polysemic therefore they can have multiple meanings --- the producer could be representing her as drunk or as nervous since she's in danger.
  • Alternative theme and narrative. 
  • On the word 'riptide' along high angle establishing shot of the sea, connoting danger and death. The producer constructed a negative representation of the sea by making look enormous/as if there was no end to it. 
  • The video lacks anchorage which forces the audience to make own assumptions.
  • It contains elements to the horror film genre through the use of a damsel in distress, a woman being tied with ropes to a tree, dark lighting, close up of a woman screaming, knife, guns, etc. = Intertextual reference to Horror film genre. 
  • Colours are dulled out like in 70s horror filmsù
Key term - surrealism - an artistic movement that tries to depict the logic of dreams and the unconscious
  • The editing/montage creates surrealism: Cuts from one point to another, without keeping the meaning of the narrative the same (no continuity). Discontinuity Match on the action- cut from something happening to the reaction of it (e.g: the shot of a building exploding to a shot of a passerby's reaction of the explosion). 
If we see Riptide as a surrealist text, then suddenly the dream imagery starts to make more sense. Sigmund Freud suggested that dreams represent our deep and subconscious fears... and desires. Many of the themes in Riptide are commonly reported in dreams, including:

  • Sex and sexualisation
  • Teeth and violence
  • Suddenly jumping from one location to another (technical term: it lacks spacial continuity)An unseen threat
  • Half remembered scenes from old films












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